


The Visiting Hours Job

by Lets_call_me_Lily



Category: Leverage
Genre: Breaking and Entering, Food, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29281101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lets_call_me_Lily/pseuds/Lets_call_me_Lily
Summary: Parker's notbreakingand entering into Eliot's place, she's just entering. With permission, mostly!
Relationships: Parker & Eliot Spencer (Leverage)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 35
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	The Visiting Hours Job

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Doranwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doranwen/gifts).



> Thanks to darkwingdukat for the once-over!

The first time Parker drops in—well. The first time that Eliot notices Parker dropping into his apartment, there’s a big row (exacerbated by Parker mentioning all the other times that Eliot had been just fine with it, since it turned out that Eliot had not been fine with her checking his roof beams, weapon collection and wardrobe contents, he just hadn’t _known_ she was doing it).

Parker’s still not sure why Eliot cares so much; it’s not like she stole anything. But she promises to stop scoping out Eliot’s place like he’s a mark, stop visiting when he isn’t home, and to “make a damn noise before coming in, Parker, or better yet, don’t come here at all”. Well, she parrots back the promises, but her fingers are crossed behind her back so it’s not like it matters.

* * *

After the horse job in Kentucky, Parker stomps up to Eliot's door, picks the lock silently because that's the only way she can, and then stomps the rest of the way in, ignoring how his shoulders tense for a moment and the way he calls out “Yeah, Parker, come in why don’tcha”. She perches on the back of the couch and stares at Eliot while he does kitchen stuff. Then she stares some more as he waits for something to come out of the oven. He stares back, hair pulled back with a red polka dot cloth and arms crossed. Neither of them talk.

The oven timer dings and Eliot turns away, returning with a steaming round dish filled with yellow softness. Parker wants to poke her finger in it to make a smiley face, but she doesn’t because she knows that hot things burn, and burns can cause nerve damage and she needs her fingers to be as good as can be.

Eliot puts out two glasses of water, two plates and two spoons, and she knows that one set is for her because he says, “Sit down, Parker. It’s not poisoned, it’s spoonbread. Eat.” 

She sits down and takes a spoon for the spoonbread. She hopes that the spoonbread doesn’t also have spoons in it, unless they’re gold spoons that she can keep, because metal is uncomfortable to swallow, and not very tasty. Eliot rolls his eyes, then explains the recipe to her. The only spoons, it turns out, are the ones you eat the bread with.

After she finishes scraping off the crunchy bits on the side of the dish, she stands up to leave and says, “I still don’t like horses.”

Eliot grunts in acknowledgement and shuts the door behind her.

* * *

Alice White calls Eliot up and is invited to tea. Parker would just come over and then tell Eliot once she was there, but Sophie says that inviting oneself to a person’s house is rude, so you have to make it seem like it was their idea.

Because Alice White doesn’t steal, Parker puts back the hair bead that slips so easily off Eliot’s plait into her hand, and wears short sleeves so that he knows there’s nothing in them. Alice listens and sips her tea, and Eliot talks about the history of the drink and what a traditional tea ceremony would be like if she went to Japan.

Parker mentions off-hand that she once lifted a kilogram of original Da-Hong Pao tea leaves from a Chinese dignitary while on a heist. Eliot sprays his tea everywhere when she says that even after putting a handful into her cup, it still didn’t taste nice.

Parker laughs, because making Eliot lose his composure is funny, but Alice fishes out a handkerchief and offers it so he can wipe the table.

* * *

A while after Eliot tells Parker to stop counting how many times she has been to his apartment in her head, Parker visits Eliot. She already has an invitation, because she always has an invitation now (even though it’s not standing anywhere, or even sitting down). Eliot’s made a chocolate souffle that he wants her to try, and in return she’s agreed to watch people kick a ball around on TV with him, and not eat all the popcorn.

Somehow, it’s just as much fun coming in through the window knowing she’s expected.

**Author's Note:**

> Da-Hong Pao tea is a [Very Expensive Ooolong tea](http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160425-the-pot-of-tea-that-costs-10000?ocid=global_travel_rss) that comes from the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province, China.


End file.
